A far greater uncertainty is whether they will perform up to spec, or operate at all.

There have been a few questions about their advertised specs, but hardly anything. Most people believe that they are capable of producing and shipping a quality product (They already have with the Bitforce Single). Most people are also concerned about the ethics of their management, and the quality of their customer support. These two issues stemmed from months of FPGA setbacks/long shipping times, and have only gotten worse as ASICs get closer to launch.

I have rewritten this only for comedic relief. This is an artistic expression not meant to be sourced from BFL at all.

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BFL ASIC Delays - An In-Depth Explanation

Anticipation is running high at Butterfly Labs in advance of receipt of our chips from the foundry. The production of these very dense, hand-routed chips are the reason for the delay in the latest line of bitcoin mining machines. Unlike our competitors, Butterfly Labs ASIC chips are 100% custom. Producing custom chips requires foundry scheduling and forces us into the queue with other chip developers (from all industries). This is true of all contracted production at a fab, including that of Avalon AND bASIC. All of them have to be scheduled and placed into a queue.

The design is complete. █WTF?█ It’s just a matter of waiting for production and delivery. The boards, enclosures, and assembly teams are standing by, anxiously awaiting delivery of the chips so we can begin assembly and start shipping.

Remember this paragraph, then laugh, as you read the exact same below. (Please, I encourage you to read the original for extra laughs!)

Our competitorsWe are facing worse challenges.Recent posts from BFL have outlined redesign plans and delays for their chip and board. When aA road map doesn't exist, let alone a trail to follow, it canwe create situations that require extra time to develop solutions throughout the development process. Butterfly Labs has been down this road before and we anticipated, long ago, the issues that bASIC iswe are now facing. The reality is, this technology does not exist anywhere else in the world. It's not as though you can go to a big box electronics retailer and buy this technology off of the shelf.

The ASIC miners are revolutionary machines that will render most, if not all, graphics card miners ineffective and cost prohibitive. ASIC miners will not be eclipsed as quickly and significantly as their predecessor, the FPGA units. They are meant to be a long-term investment. Their performance should be sustained for at least two years and potentially as many as five years. That is not to say that there won't be improvements over the next few years; there will be. The improvements just won't be the night and day difference of the ASIC vs. FPGA technologies.

Butterfly Labs is committed to offering products and solutions that will enable bitcoin miners to pay us to remain competitive. That is why we have an upgrade program for all of itsour [typo] FPGA customers to be able to receive 100 percent trade-in value towards a new Single SC or Mini Rig SC. [This is actually called vendor lock in] Nowhere in the world can you find that kind of offer. [Except Avalon and bASIC with their own trade in programs!] It's similar to buying a high performance car one day and then after six months going back to the dealer and asking for 100 percent of what you paid towards a new, even higher performance car. It is unprecedentedquite common, to say the least.

So let us repeat - The only uncertainty left is the exact date in January our 100% custom BFL ASIC chips will arrive at our facility. [plus 20 to 30 days for PCB assemble, test, and final assembly...err February..] And we’re getting closer to knowing that exact date now. [LMAO]

For the latest informationexcuses and delays visit Jody's Customer Service Blog, and more, please visit our new BFLForums at <https://forums.butterflylabs.com/blogs/> [/quote]

You have to login to view more than just the 8 comments. Comments aren't appearing right away, but I see no sign of them deleting any. Do you want me to take a screenshot? Or are you going to shut the fuck up?

Thanks, SLok. At least somebody's aware that I'm one of few here who's performed stand-up comedy and hosted about 300 shows (Writer's Nights) in Nashville.

<humor only>

Quote

For those concerned about what our 22 employees are during while we await the chips from the foundry, Ninja Lady is overseeing a team of artisans, producing our unique one-of-a-kind fully custom line of Christmas ornaments never before seen, let alone envisioned by are competition which, I might add, are also behind in producing ornaments for Christmas 2012.

There is a difference between posts shown through links on the "what's new" page to this topic, the links there all show the first words and poster name, but all link to the actual article page, that for long only showed one post, but caught up later, although not completely still. To much in-depth for Frizz23 I guess.